


In Which There is Snow

by bobblemonkey2



Category: Howl Series - Diana Wynne Jones, Howl no Ugoku Shiro | Howl's Moving Castle, Howl's Moving Castle - All Media Types
Genre: Calcifer being a drama queen, Domestic Fluff, F/M, Fluff, Michael and Martha being lowkey the most adorable couple, One Shot, Snow, Snowball Fight, holiday themed, howl being precious about his hair, very cute
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-04
Updated: 2021-02-04
Packaged: 2021-03-16 03:47:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,836
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29200815
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bobblemonkey2/pseuds/bobblemonkey2
Summary: Sophie is rather surprised one morning to see snow has fallen on Market Chipping, and resolves to spend the entire day revelling in it.
Relationships: Calcifer & Sophie Hatter & Howl Pendragon, Lettie Hatter & Martha Hatter & Sophie Hatter, Lettie Hatter/Ben Sullivan | Wizard Suliman, Michael Fisher/Martha Hatter, Sophie Hatter/Howl Pendragon
Comments: 9
Kudos: 30





	In Which There is Snow

**Author's Note:**

> Just a cute one-shot idea that came to mind when it was snowing here the other week. Hope you like :) All characters belong to my queen DWJ. Also I think my writing style has changed since I've read Pride & Prejudice but I really like this format - let me know if you noticed a change too!!

After the curse on Howl and Calcifer had been lifted, not a day went by when the fire demon didn’t pop out of his grate for a peruse around town or a flight in the sky; he’d become rather dependent on these little outings, especially after being stuck for so long in one place without even a view beyond his own nose. He usually went out in the mornings and afternoons, always settling back in his fireplace of an evening so that Sophie may read to him, or so that he could watch Michael mess up another one of his spells, or eavesdrop on whatever Howl had been discussing with the King that day. All of these things considered, it was very odd that when Sophie plodded downstairs that morning at around 10am, Calcifer was still sitting dozily in the grate.

‘I thought you would have been up and about by now,’ said Miss Hatter as she began readying ingredients for breakfast, which was altogether a little later than usual since she had found herself especially tired that morning, and her bed extra comfortable.

‘I could say the same to you,’ he chuckled, and Sophie raised her brows as if to say he hadn’t answered her question. ‘I can’t go out - it’s snowing out there, and you know what would happen to me if I got too close to that wretched stuff,’ he clarified grumpily.

‘Snow?’ Sophie repeated in surprise - Ingary hadn’t seen the likes of snow since her childhood, and she’d quite forgotten that it existed at all.

‘You heard me, woman! Don’t make me talk about it anymore I can’t-‘ but before he could finish his disappointed sentence, Sophie had dropped what she was doing and run straight to the Market Chipping door which was flung open in a hurry. As she did, she was greeted with the welcome sight of children throwing snowballs at one another, and perfectly shaped snowflakes falling wistfully to the ground where they joined their frosty companions; stepping out into the street she was able to see all along the white stretch of road in front of the house and down to Chipping Park, where she could see people making vaguely-humanoid snow structures adorned with tatty hats and scarves, while others walked elegantly through the icy paths arm-in-arm, probably remarking on what surprising weather they were having that morning. Determined not to sit on the sidelines, Sophie resolved to spend the day revelling in it too, and hurried back indoors.

‘I told you! It’s disgusting isn’t it…’ Calcifer began to rattle on about his many disagreements with snow (something about snowflakes being conceited and vain, not to mention deadly when they wanted to be); Sophie, however, did not hear him as she ran back upstairs to throw on her biggest coat and warmest boots, as well as yank a certain sleepy wizard out of bed.

‘Is a man’s beauty sleep not sacred anymore?’ He said, rubbing his tired eyes as Sophie threw a scarf at him.

‘It never has been,’ she laughed, finding herself in too much of a good mood to quarrel. She was feeling so agreeable that she decided to put a pot of coffee on for the wizard as he got himself dressed, so that it might make up for a few missed hours of shut-eye. While the pot boiled, she banged on the door to Michael’s room to tell him the wonderful news, which he met with more enthusiasm than Howl; the apprentice quickly readied himself and was downstairs with Sophie eagerly sipping coffee in record time.

‘Howl Jenkins will you hurry up! The snow will be melted by the time you’ve finished your beauty routine!’ Sophie shouted upstairs and Calcifer made another bitter remark about snow in that same woe-betide-me voice he had had all morning.

‘Coming, coming,’ Howl’s voice echoed through the castle, followed swiftly by the appearance of the man himself coming sluggishly down the stairs while patting his freshly-blonde hair dry with a towel.

‘I don’t know why you fiddled with your hair so much today, you’ll only be putting a hat over it!’ Sophie chuckled, and Michael did too.

‘Absolutely not - hats are the death of good hair, I will not be seen wearing one in public and I’ll be damned if you try and make me put one on!’ The wizard whined. Sophie tried in vain to convince him to wear the blue hat she had knitted him for the bitter Welsh winters, but he was having none of it, and so eventually she resorted to a little bit of magic.

‘Listen here hat, you will stay on Howl’s head all day no matter how much he wrestles with you,’ she whispered to the accessory, and it soon obliged, forcefully fastening itself to the wizard’s head in no time. Howl protested, but Sophie’s magic was far too strong and the wizard far too weak from his interrupted sleep. ‘It’s better than getting a cold, and we all know what you’re like when that happens.’ She said as a final word on the subject, before bounding outside to join in with the wintry festivities.

Having very little experience with snow, it was no surprise that Sophie found herself flat on the floor after a few steps, a fall which garnered uproarious laughter from Micheal and Howl (especially the latter considering his quarrel with Sophie just moments before). When she got to her feet she exchanged some harsh words with her boots, reprimanding them for not keeping her upright and telling them not to let her slip over again today, which they complied with in their own way and she found herself stuck to the spot not able to move. Luckily, in spite of his laughter, Howl was on hand to fix the broken spell and put a proper slip-proof one in its place (though he did tell Sophie that this whole situation might be avoided if she just minded her steps).

Spell fixed in place, Sophie continued a few paces in front of the boys to Chipping Park. Once out of the street, she was able to view the park in all of its wintry glory - as far as the eye could see it was as if a clean white blanket had been placed on top of the town, and the fountain and river replaced with a clear crystal pane of glass (now being disturbed by a few brave skaters). All things considered, it was magical and rather romantic. Michael resolved that he should like to see if Martha could take her lunch break a little earlier today, and headed off to Cesari’s, saying also that he would stop by Suliman’s to invite him and Lettie out too if he had the chance. Sophie wondered how to spend what precious time they had with this stroke of weather, and decided that she and Howl should build a snowman. 

After about half an hour of rolling snowballs and collecting decorative bits and pieces, the pair had successfully created a rather dapper looking snow-person, though Howl remarked that he looked a bit bare. ‘If only I could lend him my hat,’ he smirked, tugging at its woollen edges.

’You heard what I said earlier - that thing is staying on your head all day,’ Sophie gave him a stern look. 

‘Perhaps I can conjure some clothing for him,’ Howl suggested.

‘I know conjuring means stealing, you know,’ Sophie replied with raised, disapproving brows.

Instead of magic, they decided to simply dress their snowman with a few bits of holly and ivy as a makeshift winter garland, and they were both quite proud of the end result, saying that he looked like a beautiful Grecian statue. Michael and Martha soon came up to join them bearing freshly-baked beignets that the latter had managed to swipe from Cesari’s. The apprentice had attempted to call upon Lettie and Suliman though it seemed as if they weren’t at home - a presumption that was confirmed as they saw the pair walking jauntily along the riverside arm-in arm, though they soon shook free of their grasp on one another when Martha called over to them, something that didn’t go entirely unnoticed by the eldest Hatter. Altogether at last, the group decided they would behave like complete children and have a snowball fight.

Howl and Suliman quickly formed an alliance, making a base camp behind a large tree trunk which provided some protection from the incoming snowballs. Michael and Martha simply couldn’t bring themselves to fight against one another, so formed their own little group by the bandstand, though they spent more time giggling and whispering in each other’s ears than actually throwing snowballs. Sophie had planned on proposing an alliance with Lettie, but the middle Hatter soon got annoyed at being pelted with snow since it ruined the curls she had spent all morning putting her hair into; instead she went over to Cesari’s to get some hot teas for the group. Sophie, then, was all on her own against the two Royal Magicians, and while they had made an earlier pact not to involve magic, she felt that their advantage was too unfair, soon enlisting the help of their aforementioned snowman in throwing snowballs.

After twenty minutes, the boys begged for mercy as their icy fingers trembled, unable to scrape up any more snowballs, and their noses became red as a bunch of holly berries. Lettie’s return with tea was much appreciated, and the group huddled round in a circle to warm up before each couple went on their merry way. 

‘Lettie and Suliman seem to be getting along very well, don’t they?’ Sophie said as she and Howl walked back through the streets of Market Chipping.

‘I hadn’t noticed, though I might have asked him about her if you hadn’t spent all morning aggressively pelting us with snowballs,’ he chuckled and put his arm around her shoulder.

‘For a relatively smart wizard you can be quite dense at times,’ she rolled her eyes.

‘Relatively smart?’ He turned to face her with an exaggerated expression, and Sophie laughed, not changing her wording on the subject.

On arriving back home, they shook the snow off their clothing in the doorway. ‘Careful with that!’ Calcifer popped out of the fireplace in fear, ‘I don’t want any of that horrid stuff near me! To think you lot have been frolicking about in it while I’m stuck in here…’ he droned on for a bit before eventually sinking back down into his pile of logs and dozing off once again, no doubt dreaming of a snow-free world.

‘I’m certainly glad for the snow, even if Calcifer has been acting more of a terror than usual today,’ Sophie said under her breath reclining on the sofa with her wizard.

‘I would like it a lot better if it didn’t ruin my hair,’ Howl whined, tugging at the blue hat which, in accordance with Sophie’s spell, was to remain attached to him all day.


End file.
